breech concerns.

[tabitha]

hello! i have not been around this forum for awhile.

i am now 35/6 weeks pregnant with kassi! all has been ok, for a while there we thought she might come early (she was engaged and i had some labor scares) but now we have bigger worries.

she disengaged and flipped, and is or was breech, i felt her shift more yesterday and mw is coming to feel her again today. i hope that while im typing this she is head down, but i am a little suspicious, as i checked my own cervix earlier today and the part that was low in there didnt seem like a head.

it is hard to visualize how she is in there, based on feeling her body and feeling kicks and imagining how her body is laying. midwife has had some trouble figuring it out as well, the hearbeat was sort of the telling factor last time.

after my chiro adjustment yesterday (not for breech, for my dislocated tailbone) i felt her shift and settle, and her hiccups seem to radiate from lower down, where her shoudlers would be if she were head down. i think it is a good sign.

the truth of the matter is, i wont be having a surgical birth for breech. or at least i wont go in for one unless i have an emergency while giving birth. it isnt illegal for my midwife to deliver kassi breech, but it is outside of the standard of care, and i am not sure she is comfortable with it as an uninsured lay midwife. i wouldnt force her to do something that she is not comfortable with, i guess i would do this on my own.

midwife has brought up the option of ultrasound (thru an OB) to see the baby's position. I dont want an ultrasound. I dont want to have to lie to an OB to get one. I am not feeling it, at all. my logical self wants to tell the rest of me that i should buck up and just do it so we can move on but i just feel so strongly opposed to an ultrasound for some reason.

midwife has also mentioned there are OBs here who would deliver me in a hospital, but i am not going back there. seriously, i would rather do this at home. i have no fear of giving birth to kassi breech at home. she is my second baby, just 22 months after my first uncomplicated birth, and i dont see anything to worry about.

at any rate i have secretly been telling kassi i want her to come soon, so we dont have to deal with this breech business. i would love to have her born and i wouldnt have to think about all this stuff anymore.

i am moody and depressed today. i slept like the dead last night after my adjustment, but feel very hormonal/ hot flashy today. i dont know why i am posting all of this.

karl thinks when mw comes i should tell her i think kassi is head down again and not express any worries and hope that my confidence wears off on midwife and she will feel her head down or something. i dont know. it is hard not to worry. i dont have anyone i can really talk to about this except my midwife, and i love her. most other people are like, oh well, you have time to turn her. yes, i know all that, but i dont want to have to, i dont have the energy to focus on it, i really am unable to give it my whole self, you know?

anyway any thoughts are aprecciated. thanks for reading

tabitha

[cottonwood]

I think that if you really want the midwife there, it is a good idea to just keep refusing the ultrasound. She technically can't get in trouble for a sudden "emergency", i.e. a surprise breech, after all they happen even in hospitals with ultrasounds.

[mother4good]

Wow. I know how you feel. My baby was head down then flipped. I was actually not worried till I started getting chiro treatment for her and lying on a slant board, etc. It was like suddenly that was my entire focus and I had no energy for it! I am not as brave a you though. I resigned myself to Csection or Homebirth and those were the only options I could think about (mentally overwhelmed!) I wish you luck. It was a stressful thing to go through--especially when we weren't sure where she was and therefore if we should be trying all the tricks to turn her or not. The Webster Technique will not flip a baby the wrong way, from what I understand. You might ask your chiro about it. My baby got really active after each treatment, then flipped after the 3d. I was told the average is 5 treatments. Since I was going every other day, it only took me a week! So far so good, but I have 5 weeks to go, so I still get adjusted to try to keep her down there.

I will think some head-down thoughts for you! )))))))

[TurboClaudia]

hugs to you, tabitha

I know you will make the choice that is best for you and your family. Do whatever you need to do to figure out what that choice is. You can talk to us here, write stuff down, meditate, etc.

sending you lots of love

warmly,
claudia

[loved]

It's hard. those last few weeks can be so hard. Treat yourself well. Be gentle, take baths, eat nutritious food, tell your baby you trust her/him and tell yourself you deserve the best birth ever.
I am glad you posted all of this! Writing about it is healing in itself. You're a sweet, caring mama - it shows.

Love your midwife and tell her what is going on with you.

Remind yourself that every birth journey is a rite of passage. This birth will test and challenge you (as it appears it already is) and bring many rewards.

Peace.
Lesley

[Elyssia]

my last pregnancy and birth was twins
and they were never head down the whole time
when it seemed really certain that they would
most likely not be head down for delivery
or at least not both of them
i wasn't really worried
i wondered instead why there is so much anxiety
surrounding vaginal breech deliveries
i began reading all the breech birthstories i could find
(LOTS on birthstories.com)
and reassured myself that it is really not necessarily a big deal
CERTAINLY not an automatic indication for a csection
it is just in this country where it is considered problematic
and where our doctors do not have experience dealing w/ this

my midwife does have some experience w/ breech delivery
another midwife on the "team" she put together had even more
i chose a backup doc who was non american
and in his training (i can't remember where he is from now)
he dealt with breech and all kinds of malpresentations w/o
resorting to surgery
he was very open to delivering me breech and/or
doing an internal version in case the babies were still transverse

i felt very committed to having a homebirth
felt that i would go to the hospital if it was a life or death situation
and i trust my midwife to know
with that baseline, we knew that we would handle breech at home
i felt absolutely confident in my ability to do it

at the onset of labor my babies were both transverse
i dilated to about 8 and then labor stalled for a while
b/c there was nothing presenting
baby A put her bottom down finally
labor resumed, my water broke
and she was born frank breech
compared to my 3 head down babies
i could tell no difference in terms of how it felt
i pushed for 6 minutes

i understand that you don't want an ultrasound
if a breech is confirmed, you don't want a bunch of anxiety
brought into your last few weeks
i understand not wanting to try a bunch of stuff
to get her to turn
--for me that wasn't an option b/c of twins
but i think even if it was a singleton, i would just
let the baby come how she wanted to
and babies can turn at the last minute
even quite large babies (my SIL's turned the day before
labor and he was 9lb 6oz)
i would talk to your midwife and if you are absolutely certain
that you would deliver at home, breech or not
you can give her time to review her skills and
her thoughts on the matter
you said you are very close to her
you guys can talk about it and find your comfort level
for my midwife it was no big deal, i've known her for 9 years
and she delivered all my kids, she knows i have
a very fast pushing stage
and a lot of self-confidence

look over on the multiples page
several of us have had vaginal breech deliveries
with one (or both) of our twins
several footling breeches too
you seem very clear to me in wanting to deliver at home
no matter what
so spend the time reassuring yourself that things
are going to happen as they are meant to
instead of trying to change things
just my advice (i sound so pushy in writing)

if i learned anything from my twin delivery
it's to trust in my body and in the process of childbirth
everything just resolved itself from what
is supposed to be an impossible situation (transverse babies)

good luck mama

[tabitha]

thanks to everyone for the kind words of hope! and for sharing your stories...

my midwife thinks this has been a sort of check in from my girl, saying hey! i am here, too! pay attention! and she is right i think... this is just my second baby but my first is still very much a baby- a 21 month old nursling... i also am really focussed on my home business right now and not on the birth. she has suggested i take my leave now, and make myself plan and dwell on kassi's birth. i have found it harder to connect with this child than with my first with all the distractions of being a mother already.

at any rate i am glad for the journey emotionally in this situation. it has forced me to think about my birth and how to protect it.

when i wrote my original post i had just received a chiro adjustment for my tailbone issues, i felt so tired for 2 days after and has insane strange pelvic sensations as well.

that evening i felt kassi shift, but i didnt know if she had gone head down. part of me suspected it... her hiccups were lower. :LOL but i was not hopeful.

then my midwife brought 2 other midwives from the homebirth collective over, to feel all at once and compare opinions. they were at first sight very pleasant women, and i liked them. my midwife felt first- she laid her hands on my tum and smiled and said "i am not going to say anything yet, but she has totally shifted!" and the other midwives felt , each of them smiling and being happy and then my midwife told me she was surely head down! i was so happy and immediately suatted on my bireth ball and told kassi i was sorry for all the stress and maybe she should stay head down if that was ok with her!

it was a short period of anxiety for us, but now i know what i would do if she did present breech at birth, and this has prepared me for that if i ever need it.

thanks again mamas, tabitha

[peaceful mama]

tabitha! that is so great to hear. sounds like kassi is very in-tune with you. i'm also in the process of trying to focus more on the babe in my tum. having a 23 month old has been my priority and it's so hard to switch to focus on the new baby. i've been feeling guilty about this because i had so much connection to my ds when he was in the womb. i'm going to use these last 5 weeks as "baby focus weeks" and also enjoy the one-on-one time with ds.

yippee for new babes coming very soon!